Our goal is to test rival social scientific hypotheses with historical and archaeological data. We utilize a cliodynamics approach, treating history as a predictive, analytic science. We test rival social scientific hypotheses with historical and archaeological data for a multitude of global snapshots, enabling us to tackle questions that were previously beyond our reach. Our analyses reveals dynamic changes in human history by systematically assembling the data frame-by-frame.

World Sample 30

Our goal is to test rival social scientific hypotheses with historical and archaeological data. Therefore, the Databank is systematically compiled with information about polities from around the globe.

In order to make this data collection manageable given our limited time and resources, we take a representative sample of polities from around the globe and throughout human history (specifically, the late Neolithic to the early modern period, roughly 4,000 BCE to 1,900 CE). This is our World Sample 30.

World Sample 30 Map

The World Sample-30 was designed with two goals in mind: (1) to include as much variation amongst sampled societies as possible, focussing along the dimension of social complexity , and (2) to ensure that representation of different parts of the world was maximized.

We selected 30 areas across the globe for our initial worldwide sample, stratified by world region and history of social complexity. We divided the world into ten major regions and then selected three natural geographic areas (NGAs) within each region: one NGA was selected in each world region that developed complex state-level societies very early; another NGA which selected complex societies very late (relative to other areas in that world region), ideally one free of centralized polities (chiefdoms and states) until the colonial period; and a third NGA that was intermediate in social complexity.

World Region

Late appearance of complex polities

Intermediate appearance of complex polities

Early appearance of complex polities

Africa

1-Ghanaian Coast

11-Niger Inland Delta

21-Upper Egypt

Europe

2-Iceland

12-Paris Basin

22-Latium

Central Eurasia

3-Lena River Valley

13-Orkhon Valley

23-Sogdiana

Southwest Asia

4-Yemeni Coastal Plain

14-Konya Plain

24-Susiana

South Asia

5-Garo Hills

15-Deccan

25-Kachi Plain

Southeast Asia

6-Kapuasi Basin

16-Central Java

26-Cambodian Basin

East Asia

7-Southern China Hills

17-Kansai

27-Middle Yellow River Valley

North America

8-Finger Lakes

18-Cahokia

28-Valley of Oaxaca

South America

9-Lowland Andes

19-North Colombia

29-Cuzco

Oceania-Australia

10-Oro, PNG

20-Chuuk Islands

30-Big Island Hawaii

World Sample 30 NGAs

METHODS

Data from the Seshat Databank (data.seshat.info) is under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC By-NC SA) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode) licensing. Do you agree to the reasonable and appropriate use of these data?